"People like to stomp all over them for some strange reason," said Jim Gilpatrick, a salesman at Anderson Hummer in Cockeysville. While sales are down (he won't say by how much) and GM may shop the brand, people do, believe it or not, continue to buy Hummers. He said he has recently made sales to professionals and tradesmen such as home remodelers.
Gilpatrick said one repeat customer just traded in his old H2 with 219,000 miles and drove out in a new H2. Mileage mattered less to that customer than other features. "I think it's a reasonable alternative to people who are looking for comfort and safety," the salesman said.
Peck contends that the Hummer is misunderstood and much maligned. He says the H3, which starts around $32,000, gets 17 miles per gallon in the city, 20 on the highway. The federal government is less generous - it says 14/18 mpg - but Peck's point still holds: The H3 is more fuel-efficient, or at least less fuel-inefficient, than other models in its gargantuan class.
"How many people know that?" he said. "Nobody. Or very few."
Still, that's not saying much. And the H2, which lists for more than $60,000 fully loaded and has a Chevy Suburban's modified chassis and suspension, is far thirstier. The government does not list its fuel efficiency because its huge weight - 6,400 pounds - exempts it from fuel economy regulations. Estimates put its mileage somewhere around 10 to 12 mpg, meaning that at $4 a gallon driving one costs 33 to 40 cents a mile for fuel alone.
Not that Peck worries about the price at the pump. "I honestly don't pay attention to it," he said.
Nor, he insists, do people at his office rib him for his Hummer-driving ways. Proving again that stereotypes are just that, he is a part-owner of a clean energy firm that owns hydro power stations and is developing wind farms. (The majority owner drives a Toyota Prius.)
Even among owners who are looking to sell, gas prices are not always a factor. Susan Boone wants to get rid of her "tricked out" black H3 because her kids are going to college and she no longer needs it. If gas prices were a motivation, odds are she would not have gotten herself a Maserati with worse mileage.
But for Ron Miles, the high price of gas was indeed a factor when he decided to sell his pewter 2005 H2, which he bought for $49,500 after a Rockville dealer desperate for a sale knocked 20 percent off the $62,000 list price.
"I wish I wasn't getting rid of it," he said, "but at $4 a gallon ..."
